Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-02-20
WOMEN AS JOURNALISTS.
Mrs. Croly's Experiences as a News
pauer Writer

NEW YORK, Feb. t9.-''It is thirty-two
or thirty-three years ago now :" said Jen-
ME June few days ago, "since came
to New York to look for work on news
paper, and how the situation has changed
in that length Of time"
had climbed the stairs to Mrs. Croly's
snug little perch OF an editorial Office up
under the roofs on the top floor of Demo-
rests publishing house, and had pushed
open the door to see cup of bouillon
steamIng away on the writing desk
and pen scratching busily over white
paper.
There was not in those days a woman
at work in any newspaper office in the
city," the chatty correspondent went on,
as the ink ceased for a few minutes to
now, and she leaned back in reminiscent
mood. ~ applied first at the Sun office,
thinking | might stand better chance
there than on some of the older and larger
papers. They stared a., me in blank
newspaper was thing almost
unheard OF. Margaret Fuller ought
to have paved the way by her work on the
! Tribune, but she was in the city so short
a time comparatively that her example
! seemed to be altogether lost. The Herald
| and the Tribune both took articles from
me, but neither thought of paying for
them, and it looked as If the effort to find
a place to do regular Newspaper work was
! labor lost.
GAS l remember 1t now" and Mrs.
| Croly looked up with laugh, "tbe only
! consideration that the feminine pu bile
| got from the whole body of New York
editors in those days came in the shape
of a little fashion letter from Paris in
the Commercial Advertiser and an &C.
| caslonal translation from lie Toilet in the
| Herald.
"The change, when it did come, was
| sudden one. l got a chance on the
| Weekly Times at last, and within year
after began there was hardly q weekly
| paper of any standing in the country that
| did not have woman as correspondent,
or to edit column on topics supposed to
be OF interest to women"
| And what sort of business for women
| does it maker' L asked. "Would you,
with your experience behind you, advise
a girl looking for a profession to try
! journalism ?"
"There are few harder things that a
| girl can try," said Mrs. Croly thou ght-
| fully, 'If, instead of connning herself to
| occasional fashion notes and gOssipy cor
respondence, she takes place on the re-
| gular staff of paper and shoulders some
OF the serious work Of journalism. For
! the five years that | was on the weekly
| and Sunday Times the staff never ex-
| ceeded three, and for the most part in
cluded only two persons. That was In
war times, too, when people expected a
| good deal of life and fire from their papers.
Between us we wrote the whole sheet ex-
| cept the weekly short story.
81 was the exchange editor, the
| dramatic critic, the musical critic and
the book reviewer. l never turned in
less than two columns, broad columns
they were too, Of editorials, and another
column and a half of minor editorial
sketches OF politicians and generals.
| With all this | kept up a column and a
half of my special department, 'parlor
and sidewalk gossip and attended to
pretty much all the mail and telegraph
matter. Once for three weeks when
the editor was laid up with rheu-
matism i wrote the whole paper, in
Guiding his London letter-which was got
up this side Of the water, by the way
and all.
sit was hard life, and 1t Is not any
l easier, though a good deal different, now.
And yet great many young women like
| it and are doing good, honest work ia it
right along today.
The best chance for a woman still, es-
pecially in New York, is in lines that
women found their way into first, cores
pondence, social topics-and Pd rather
| take that In its best than in its worst
sense-and book reviewing. 1t happens
| often enough, especially In the smaller
| cities, that a woman is accepted soberly
| as an editorial writer, and her mother wit
| is utillZed-gratefuliy enough too since
! she works for small pay-on every topic
with which the masculine brain is called
upon to grapple; but such instances are
as yet, believe, the exceptions, though
they are multiplying fast and may before
| long form the rule.
''It is one OF the pleasantest things of
to-day that there is no sex in good work.
Sooner or later women will find their
level, and what they can do there will
not be LACKING chances for them to do.
AS yet we lack, the most of us, the
training that gives eXactness and ac-
curate habits of mind, but so fast as we
find out what our deficiencies are, | be.
lisve we have common sense enough to
rem edy them"
what part of your newspaper work
have you enjoyed mostW l asked, as Mrs.
Croly finished with the decided emphasis
OF woman who believes in The p0ssibil-
tiles of women.
81 used TO bring down wrath upon my
head" she laughed, "because l said |
liked editorial work best, because could
do that in my sleep. Editorial writing
suits the feminine temperament as a mat
Ter OF course. Inc most I0at IL requires
is positive opinion, and we women are
never lacking in that. You study your
subject or not, as you choose. Then you
assume an authoritative tone and declare
your sentiments with distinctness and
with all the force Of the great impersonal
newspaper property behind you. And
the dear public reads and never once re-
cOgnizes the hand OF the single little
woman that is all that is really repre-
sented by the autocratio pOmp of the
editorial 'we.'
"Seriously though, women have had
comparatively little chance to sho what
stuff they are made Of in responsible
newspaper positions. Mrs. Nicholson,
the proprietor of the New Orleans Plea
yune, makes the best OF editors. She has
more than kept up the reputation OF the
paper and directs its policy with acumen
and good sense. But as a rule, news
papers, which are great pieces OF prop
erty, money-making concerns as much
as a big mill or factory, nowadays
require too much capital for many
women as yet to have been associated in
their ownership or to nave had much
to do with the real direction of their
policy.
Women are only sasx61 ap-
premiership to thanprrhter's craft yet,
but they are doing their time well and
faithfully. When see a really scandal
ous thing in the columns Of society gossip,
| a hona Iv hoI AZ